Henry howard



D..22, A1925. v H. HOWARD sunrmm BURNER Filed Dee. 2e, 1924 f l l 1/ Patented Dec. 22, 1925.. UNITED, STATES 1,566,538 PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY HOWARD,'OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GRASSELLI CHEMICAL COMPANY, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

SULPHUR BURNER.

Application lcd December 26, 1924. Serial No. 758,221.

To all 'wlzom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY HOWARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sulphur Burners, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to sulphur burners and more particularly to sulphur lburners comprising a rotary part such as the soealled-Glens Falls burner, and will be described and illustrated in connection therewith.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one embodiment of my invention.

Referring to the drawing, 1 is a rotary sulphur burner, 2 a combustion chamber ilnto which the gas generated in the burner passes, and is a receptacle for melted sulphur which is delivered to the burner through the pipe 4. The burner l, combustion chamber 2, and sulphur feeding means 3 and which constitute the essentials of the Glens Falls burner are of known construction and need not be further described. The Glens Falls burner is described on pages 60, 6l and 62 of Bulletin No. 184 entitled The Manufaci ture of Sulphuric Acid in the United States by A. E. Wells and D. E. Fogg, issued' by the U. S. Department of the Interior in 1920. 5 is a gas tight housing of any suitable material, such as concrete or steel, which encloses the entire burner, and 6 is a conduit through which air under ressure from a suitable source isdelivered into the housing.

In the normal operation of sulphur burners of the Glens Falls type a limited supply of air is admitted at the front end of the burner, that is, at the end opposite the combustion chamber and the resulting gas containing SOz and sulphur vapor passes out through the rear end of the burner where it is mixed with air admitted through the adjustable space 7 The resultin gas mixture passes into .the combustion c amber 2 in which the combustion of the sulphur is completed and from which the SO2-containing gas is. delivered to a sulphuric acid plant or other place of use. The burner is operated under 4reduced pressure that is, under suction or draft produced by a fan, gas pump or the like. In case the gas is'to be used in a sulphuric acid contact process, it is generally rst purified and dried, then enters a Roots blower, which furnishes the necessary suction' and is delivered by the blower through the contact apparatus, coolers and absorbers. In the case of the sulphite pulp process, a fan or pump is generally placed beyond the absorption system, the whole plant thereby working under reduced pressure.

It is not new to operate sulphur burners under superatmospheric pressure. A burner consisting of a stationary cast iron b oX or pipe has been used in which the supliur is burned and to which air is supplied under pressure. Such burners, however, operate in a very uneven manner, and sublimation of the sulphur and great variation in the composition of the gas are very apt to occur. The Glens"L Falls burner has overcome these diiculties and has very largely displaced other typesof burners, both in the sulphuric acid industry and in the sulphite pulp industry. I-`lertofore. however, it has been necessary to operate the Glens Falls type of burner under reduced pressureI because `ot the fact that owing to its rotary motion it has been impossible or impracticable to make a satisfactory gas tight joint between'l the rotary and the stationary parts.

My invention, therefore,.consists in placing a housing entirely around the rotating part and adjacent stationary part of the burner, so that no stutiing box or rotary air light joints are necessary, a standard burner bein used and the control of the composition of the gas being maintained in exactly the same manner as when the burner is operated under reduced pressure. From one point of View it is operated under a reduced pressure, as the pressure of the air inside the rotating burner is substantially as much below the pressure in the outside casing as -the pressure in the interior of an ordinary burner is below atmospheric pressure.

In operating the burner under pressure in accordance' with my invention, air under pressure is supplied to the housing 5 through the pipe 6 from any suitable source. The regulation of the air supply at the front and back ends of the burner is exactly the same as' in the normal operation ofthe burner.

.The pressure applied to the air supply is transmitted through the gas in the burner and the combustion chamber and may serve to deliver the gas to the place of use at any pressure desired; thus allowing it to ybe bubbled through an absorbing solution or forced of my invention are applicable to sulphur burners other than rotaryburners of the Glens Falls type, for instance, to burners which do not comprise a moving or rotating part, but the invention is-particularly designed to combine the advantages of the Glens Falls type of huwen-principally the production of a gas of uniform SO2 content, with the advantages incident to operating sulphur burners under ypressureV-the elimination of pumps operating upon hot corrol sive gases, and to overcome the mechanical difficulties heretofore encountered in attempts to operate rotary burners under superatmospheric pressures.

Instead of supplying the sulphur to the burner in liquid form as described a ove, it may be supplied in solid form by mea s of a standard screw conveyor or in an);1 other suitable manner.

I claim 1. A sulphur burner comprising a receptacle for sulphur to be burned, having an air inlet opening and a gas discharge openlng, a chamber enclosing said receptacle having an air inlet opening and a gas discharge opening, and means for -delivering air under superatmospherie pressure into said chamer through its air inlet opening.

2. A sulphur burner comprising a rotary receptacle, means for supplying sulphur to said receptacle, a combustion chamber communicating With said receptacle, means for admitting air into said receptacle and into the gas stream passing from said receptacle to said chamber.l a gas 'tight housing surrounding said nicans for admitting air, and means for supplying air to said housing under superatmospheric pressure.

3. A sulphur burner comprising a rotary receptacle, a stationary chamber, a conduit for the passage of gas from said receptacle to said chamber, means for admitting air into said receptacle, means-for admitting air into said conduit, and a gas tight housing surrounding said receptacle 'and at least a portion of said conduit enclosing said means' ior admitting air. Y In testimony whereof, I alix my signature.

HENRY HOWARD. 

